2 big plays help carry Shippensburg over Clarion, 41-17

Despite being interfered with by Clarion's Sam Fareri, left, Kyle Haines of Shippensburg University catches a touchdown pass Saturday in a 41-17 Red Raider victory.(Photo: Andy Grosh, For Public Opinion)Buy Photo

For the first two weeks of the season, there's been a sense about the Shippensburg University football program that perhaps the Red Raiders haven't been performing up to their potential.

But with one swift knockout punch, Mark Maciejewski's bunch shook off a shaky 1-1 start and sent a flashing telegraph to the rest of the PSAC that they won't be throwing in the towel any time soon.

In the last conference crossover game before play begins in the PSAC Eastern Division, Shippensburg clocked Clarion 41-17 and established an identity as a team that likes to dominate the line of scrimmage.

The most telling stats from Saturday's game at Seth Grove Stadium were the rushing totals. The Red Raiders had 334 rushing yards, compared to just 10 for the Golden Eagles.

It's a stat that pleases Coach Mac.

"Something we want to do is play physical football," Maciejewski said. "This gives us some confidence with conference play coming up."

Next week, Shippensburg (2-1) welcomes East Stroudsburg (2-1), a 34-31 winner over Mercyhurst.

TWO BIG PLAYS

Take away two plays from the first half and the game is a 17-17 tie. But as Maciejewski put it, the ball finally bounced SU's way.

The first play was a defensive touchdown and came at the end of the first quarter when Shippensburg trailed 7-0. Clarion QB Connor Simmons, who threw for 315 yards and two TDs, delivered the ball to his receiver's hands, but it was tipped straight in the air and corralled for an interception by Allan Holman, who returned it 32 yards for a score.

The second play came at the end of first half with Ship leading 24-17 following a 42-yard field goal from Billy Deane. Only three seconds were on the clock when Deane kicked off to Clarion. The ball was stripped from the Golden Eagles' returner and taken 30 yards to paydirt by Colin Williams to give the Red Raiders a 31-17 lead at halftime.

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Shippensburg's Allen Holman (7) runs back an interception for a touchdown, with fellow defender Tarron Dunbar (31) leading the way. The Red Raiders beat Clarion 41-17 Saturday.(Photo: Andy Grosh, For Public Opinion)

The two-score lead allowed Shippensburg to settle into its running game in the second half and also made Clarion's play-calling more predictable.

"Those plays were huge," Maciejewski said. "We'll take points any way we can get them and any time you score in all three phases, you're going to be tough to beat."

COMEBACK KID

RB Cole Chiappialle, a former walk-on at Penn State, was left for dead at the end of the 2014 season, when he suffered a serious injury on special teams against Michigan State. He transferred to Shippensburg, redshirted the 2015 season, and was relatively quiet through his first two games for the Red Raiders.

Not anymore.

Chiappialle had his coming out party Saturday, exploding for 147 yards on 20 carries for an average of 7.3 yards. The 5-foot-9, 200-pound bruiser scored two TDs.

"I've been out of football for awhile, so it took some touches for me to get a feel and settle into a groove," said Chiappialle, whose one-yard scoring plunge to start the fourth quarter put the game out of reach at 38-17. "I didn't feel like I was playing to my potential over the first two weeks. I played physical and got back to what I like to do: Running hard."

Chiappialle began his interview by heaping credit upon the offensive line, which also assisted RB Justin Pyle to 112 yards on 22 carries.

NASE TURNS IT UP

DE Richard Nase, Shippensburg's all-time single-season sack leader, followed up his monster freshman season with a rather peculiar sack number for his first two games: Zero.

Nase revived his season with a three-sack performance. With the Raiders' defense bottling up the Clarion running game, it gave Nase the opportunity to go after the quarterback, and he was rewarded big time.

"(Shutting down the running game) worked well," Nase said. "It made their offense one-dimensional. We weren't that worried about the run, so we were able to settle in against the pass."

Local performers: Greencastle's Chad Miller, SU's starting strong safety, finished with four tackles, including two solo tackles, to go along with a pass breakup. Former Chambersburg star J.T. Hopple tied a season-best for tackles with two.

Free-lance writer Andy Sandrik can be reached at big_andy76@yahoo.com and @AndySandrik.